Man released on bail after 41 years on death row

Man released after 41 years on death row as DNA evidence fails to link him to murder

A man who spent 41 years on death row in the United States after being convicted of murdering a woman has been released on bail after prosecutors said newly analysed DNA evidence did not link him to the crime.

Douglas Stewart Carter, now 71, was imprisoned for the 1985 killing of Eva Olesen in Utah. He was sentenced to death but has consistently maintained that he was innocent and that a confession he signed was obtained through coercion.

A Utah judge granted Carter bail on Monday despite objections from Olesen’s family. He must wear a GPS monitoring device while released.

The Utah Supreme Court ordered a new trial last year after finding misconduct by investigators.

Olesen, the aunt of a local police chief, was stabbed repeatedly before being shot in the back of the head at her home in Provo in February 1985.

Carter, originally from Chicago, was living with his mother in Utah when Olesen was killed. Court records show that investigators suspected him of carrying out the killing during a robbery.

Carter fled Utah after believing police were looking for him in connection with an unrelated case. He was eventually located in Nashville, Tennessee, where he signed a confession during police questioning.

He later said the confession had been coerced.

Despite the absence of physical evidence connecting Carter to the crime scene, a jury convicted him on the basis of the confession and testimony from two witnesses who claimed Carter had boasted about killing Olesen.

The two witnesses later changed their accounts. In 2011, they said police had instructed them to lie in court, provided them with money and gifts and threatened them with deportation if they refused to testify against Carter.

More than a decade later, the Utah Supreme Court ordered that Carter receive a new trial.

New DNA analysis excludes Carter

Carter’s lawyers said witnesses had reported seeing a white man fleeing the scene and alleged that an investigator had withheld evidence pointing toward Olesen’s husband, Orla Olesen.

They said prosecutors had been close to bringing charges against the husband but that a police officer asked them not to do so while he continued investigating.

Orla Olesen, who died in 2009, told police he had discovered his wife dead inside their home.

Investigators said the stab wounds were inflicted with a kitchen knife that was found near Olesen’s body. The gun used in the shooting was never recovered.

Earlier this month, prosecutors said new DNA testing had excluded Carter as a possible match to blood found on a doorknob and genetic material recovered from the knife handle.

The findings came as Carter’s defence continued to challenge the evidence that led to his conviction.

Victim’s family opposes release

Carter’s release was granted despite opposition from Olesen’s family.

Theresa Olesen, Eva Olesen’s daughter-in-law, told Monday’s bond hearing that the family had “serious concerns” about Carter being released and argued that he should remain in custody while awaiting a new trial.

“By golly we were hoping for a concrete match,” she said of the DNA testing. “It doesn’t mean he wasn’t there.”

Carter’s defence lawyer, Neal Hamilton, went further and called for the case against his client to be dismissed.

“If the state of Utah had their way, he would have been executed 15, 20 years ago before we discovered the misconduct,” Hamilton told the Associated Press.